Midlife Crisis
by Mariko Azrael
Summary: After the events in 'Future Shock', Virgil visits an old friend. StaticRobin friendship.


Disclaimer: Static Shock belongs to Kids' WB, and presumably DC Comics, not me.  
Author's Notes: After Terry's liner about Robin in 'Future Shock', it got me wondering what happened to Virgil's friendship with Robin/Tim. Spoilers for 'Future Shock', 'Return of the Joker', 'The Call', and an ending so corny, you could eat it as a side dish. Er... enjoy, and feedback is always appreciated. 

When Tim hears rapping on the window of his twentieth story apartment, it doesn't take him long to figure out whom it is. Dick and Barbara used to do the same thing when they were younger and bolder. As for Bruce, he would've found that one entrance everybody else overlooked, stepping out of a shadow that hadn't been there before. So when he opens the window, he's not surprised one bit to see Virgil Hawkins hovering in mid-air, looking proud and confident in his Static costume. 

Tim doesn't waste words. "What do you want?" 

Static still wears a mask, but he hasn't learned how to hide his emotions, even after all these years. He looks hurt, but not surprised, as he responds, "I just thought it was time to see you again." 

"You got into your costume and flew halfway across Gotham. To see me." 

Virgil grins sheepishly. "I spoke with my inner child, literally." His features darken a bit. "It got me thinking." 

Tim drums his aged fingers against the window pane. He's gone through more reliving his past then he cares to admit, and he doesn't feel like doing it one more time. "Look, this is probably turn into you babbling about how they were the happiest days of your life, and I'm not in the mood to indulge you, so---" 

"Shut up, Tim" 

The metahuman makes a frustrated sound as he runs a hand through his hair, and he looks so foolish right now, an undeniably human figure dressed up like… Tim can only describe it as an anthromorphic lightning bolt. "They really were the happiest days of my life. But then I saw the punk kids I used to fight become harder, meaner. I watched Batman grow old and be replaced. I saw Green Lantern die, and be replaced by some… balding brat! And I saw what happened to you." His voice cracks with emotion. For a second, Tim thinks he might cry, and gets a sick feeling when he realizes that Bruce somehow managed to overlook how to console weeping superheroes during all those rigorous training sessions. But Virgil keeps his grip, sort of. "It makes me almost wish that I'm as bitter as you are." 

Tim's surprised by how soft his voice is. "And after all that, you're not?" 

"I can't be. I'm the only one who can do this." Virgil says it as if Tim should've known by now. 

"Who told you that, your father?" Tim snaps. 

Virgil shrugs simply. "Yeah." 

He's known Static for a long time, but the idea of a cape and cowl-er quoting their father, even having one at all, seems… wrong somehow. "He must've been a very wise man." 

"Um… he's still alive. In fact, he's so alive my kid and I are going out to dinner with him this evening." He gets that grin he gets when he has (what he thinks) is a brilliant idea, and Tim is starting to wonder why Virgil even bothers wearing a mask at all. "Hey, why don't you come with us? Timmy's always wanted to meet his namesake." 

His wife is out on a business trip. His children are visiting their grandmother. And Virgil isn't going to let this go. So why not? "Let me grab my coat and keys first." 

"Nuh-uh. My way is much faster." 

"You want me to get on that glorified manhole cover?" Tim isn't going to let Virgil forget the earnest, if somewhat thrifty, first days of his career. 

"You used to do it all the time when we were kids!" 

"I hate to break it to you Virgil, but we've grown up." 

"Well then, think of it as a mid-life crisis." 

* 

The sky is still that awful, reddish color. Civilians still gape in awe (you think by now they would've gotten used to it). Tim thinks that maybe he should hold on to Static a little bit tighter, but decides against it. Instead, he taunts, "You're getting slower in your old age, Virgil." 

Static doesn't say anything, he just grins like an idiot, and everything around Tim becomes a blur, and he almost wishes he was as versatile as he was. 


End file.
